Parkes Quotarians are seeking your help.

We are collecting old behind the ear type hearing aids to be serviced and used to restore the gift of hearing to poor people in the village of Ba, Fiji.

These old aids cannot be used in Australia, but our sister club, Ba, have an audiometrist who services these aids – generally getting one working one from three old ones.

Tom Shepherd visits Fiji every two months and gives his time and skills free for one day each trip to help people at a clinic run by the Ba Quotarians.

We can help by digging out our old hearing aids or our parents old aids and leaving them in the boxes provided for the purpose in the Parkes and Dunford’s Pharmacies or at the Hearing Stand at the Parkes Show.

As our Show coincides with hearing week, we will be having a stand at the show where there will be a great deal of information available for people concerned about their hearing.

Helping in the fields of hearing and speech is one of the very important things that Quotarians do.

We have annual scholarships in the South Pacific for research and training, and are very proud of the achievements of many of our scholarship winners.

Kirsty Berry Gardiner, for instance was the chief instigator of hearing tests for newborn infants which is saving many parents and their offspring great angst and also saving the taxpayers money.

So helping in this field is very high on Quota’s priority list.

But it doesn’t stop us from having a great deal of fun together.

Indeed, this year we have for the fourth time won an International Excellence Award from Quota International for Fellowship and Fun.

If you would like to know more about Quota, please ring me on 6862 2990.

We always welcome new members.

And please don’t forget to see if you can find any old behind the ear hearing aids and drop them into one of the boxes at the pharmacies or at the Show.